A Grave Problem

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Job Sign-Up Archive 10/2022: Page 42, Post Number 1029

-Outside Silent Cemetery, midnight-

"So lemme get this straight. You say that something's been calling you here?" Will asked Lucia skeptically. The blonde looked at Will before speaking.

"I know it sounds really stupid, but yes. Something's been calling me to this place. Silent Cemetery was all I could think about yesterday and it was all I could think about until I got here." Lucia said to Will as her hair began to blow about in the wind. Wearing her typical casual outfit of gray long-sleeved shirt, long white skirt, and brown hiking boots, Lucia also carried Shining Light in its holster on her right hip. She was not sure what to expect in Silent Cemetery, but she was armed in case whatever strange force had pulled her here turned out to be hostile. She had also brought Will so that she would have backup in case something happened and she was unable to get out of trouble by herself.

"A few months ago I would have thought that the idea of something pulling you here was utterly stupid, but after what we went through looking for those diamonds that had been taken to Sombras Manor I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt here." Will said with his usual candor.

"Thanks, Will." Lucia replied as she faced the cemetery gates. While whatever had compelled her to come here had let up enough for her to be able to think about other things, Silent Cemetery still occupied center stage in her mind. She was not going to be able to focus on anything else until she went inside and explored the place, so she might as well do it now while her willingness to do so was at its height.

"Well, what do you say, Lucia? Do you want to go inside the cemetery?" Will asked the blonde mage. She turned to look at the gray-clad robot.

"I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to go into a cemetery that's full of zombies and who knows what else, but I'm gonna go in and see if I can't find what's been compelling me to come here." Lucia told him with candor of her own.

"OK. Works for me." Will replied. Together the two of them walked towards the cemetery gates and when they reached them Will opened the left one for Lucia and she went through. Will then went through and shut the gate behind them.

-Inside Silent Cemetery-

Lucia and Will faced forward and found that the opposition from the undead was next to nonexistent. There was a lone female zombie in a black burial gown walking about in the first section of Silent Cemetery a meter left of the branching path. Drawing, aiming, and firing Shining Light would take longer than actually killing it.

"I'll handle it." Will stated as if anticipating Lucia's command. She watched as his right hand retracted into his arm and his arm cannon came out. He then aimed it at the zombie's head and waited for a second before firing. The result was predictable... the zombie went down in a single shot with a gaping hole in its left temple.

"That was easy." Will commented. With the lone zombie lying dead on the ground the way was clear, so Will and Lucia began walking towards the branch in the path. Once they reached it the pair stood in place until Will asked a question.

"Which way do we go, Lucia?" Will asked the blonde. Lucia crossed her arms over her chest and looked both ways. At first she was not sure which way to go, but soon she felt a strong compulsion to head right. She looked left again and did not feel any special impulse to go in that direction, so she decided to follow her instincts.

"We go right." Lucia gave her answer to Will's question. He looked at her for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.

"OK. Right it is." Will said before the two began to walk towards the right. Ahead of them loomed Lacrima lanterns sitting on tombstones... and quite a few zombies. While there were a lot of them their numbers were not too great for Will and Lucia to handle.

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-Inside the next section of cemetery three minutes later-

Guided by a mysterious impulse that had also motivated Lucia to come here to begin with, Lucia and Will had traveled right when presented with a branching path. Now they stared down a group of twenty-three zombies that was barring the way. Will raised his arm cannon and was aiming it at one of the zombies when Lucia reached out with her right hand and lowered the arm.

"I'll handle this." Lucia told him. Before he could muster a response Lucia began to channel golden magic throughout her body to prepare for the Seraph's Fury spell. When it was ready she leaped straight up into the air. She froze in place at the height of the jump and manifested six wings of golden magic, then flapped them at the zombies. When she did twenty-three beams of golden light fired from the wings and homed in on the zombies, hitting each and every one of them squarely in the chest. All of them disintegrated simultaneously moments before Lucia dropped back to the ground.

"You handled it all right, Lucia." Will remarked dryly on her elimination of the zombies. It had been awhile since Lucia had last used her Seraph's Fury spell... in fact she could not recall the last time she had used it. She tended to use Shining Light to save magic power, but tonight she was using her magic because it was a lot quicker than aiming Shining Light at the head of each zombie and firing a shot.

"That spell I just used was one of my strongest spells." Lucia commented to Will.

"I can tell. That was quite the light show you put on." Will replied dryly as the wind picked up and his yellow scarf flapped about in the wind. Lucia looked down the cemetery path and did not see any more zombies in the immediate area. She stood in place for a bit longer and looked around the area. She did not see anything out of the ordinary, but she felt a sudden chill that did not come from the wind.

The familiar voices were starting again and so was the familiar sensation that the cemetery was her home.

Her time on this earth had ended long ago.

She no longer had a place among the living.

"Lucia?" Will asked the blonde, who was too busy hearing the voices to respond to him.

Why had she come back?

"Lucia, are you OK?" Will asked her again. Again she was too preoccupied to answer him.

Why did she come back to the world of the living?

"LUCIA!" Will shouted at her. The blonde finally heard him and turned to face the gray-clad robot.

"Lucia, are you OK?" Will repeated his question. Lucia shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not sure if I am, Will." Lucia answered hesitantly. Will maintained eye contact with her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked bluntly. It was clear to her that he had no patience for riddles. Lucia took a quiet breath.

"Will, there's something I have to tell you, It's about me." Lucia informed him. Will folded his arms over his chest.

"OK, tell me." He bade her. Lucia looked around a few moments to make sure that there were no zombies around to attack them while they talked. Once she was sure that none were around she faced him again.

"I died over four years ago." Lucia started telling him more about herself so that he might understand the source of her problem. He frowned at her.

"You died over four years ago." He repeated with obvious disbelief on his voice.

"It sounds really dumb, but it's true. I died over four years ago when I drank poisoned wine." Lucia assured her skeptical robotic companion that what she was telling him was true. Will's posture and facial expression did not change at all.

"OK, so if you died from drinking poisoned wine and were dead for so long, how did you come back to life?" Will asked her. Lucia shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't tell me that you don't know." Will commented sourly.

"OK, I won't tell you." Lucia retorted with a slight edge of sarcasm. It was not like she was trying to build a mystique around herself by being deliberately vague. She honestly had no clue how or why she had come back to life and that was a mystery that she was trying to solve.

"So if what you're saying is true, then why did you space out earlier? Were you about to die again?" Will asked Lucia. Lucia took another quiet breath before she spoke.

"I wasn't about to die, Will. I was hearing voices." Lucia admitted. Will's gaze remained fixed on her.

"Voices?" He asked the blonde skeptically.

"Yes, voices." Lucia repeated her assertion calmly.

"Tell me everything." Will bluntly ordered her.

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Ignoring both the blunt tone of voice and the equally blunt command from Will, Lucia began to explain to him what she meant when she claimed that she sometimes heard voices.

"The voices I hear don't scream at me, but they whisper to me. They whisper every time I enter a graveyard. They tell me that I don't belong in this world anymore and that my real home's a grave." Lucia started explaining what she meant the best she could. Will did not seem impressed, but neither did he interrupt. Lucia took that silence as her chance to keep explaining her point of view and paused for a few moments to focus before speaking again.

"While it sounds like cemeteries are the last place I would want to be in, I feel oddly calm here. The zombies don't particularly bother me and neither do all the tombstones. It feels like I belong here." Lucia continued her explanation. She had to admit that what she was saying did not make very much sense. What she was going through did not make very much sense either. She should have been dead and still lying in her sarcophagus in the Winchester family crypt, but for some reason she was among the living once again.

"...OK. That still doesn't make much sense to me." Will bluntly told her once she had spoken. Lucia took a quiet breath. Dealing with Will's frank opinions could be such a challenge sometimes. Lucia was calm as she spoke to him again.

"It's really hard to explain, Will. You'd have to go through what I'm going through to fully understand it." Lucia said to him as calmly as she could. She looked to her right and two rows in front of her was an open grave on the second row... it was the thirteenth grave on the row. The sight visibly disturbed the blonde.

"Lucia, forgive the expression, but you look like you've seen a ghost. Are you OK?" Will asked her. Lucia pointed towards the open grave with the index finger of her right hand.

"Not really." She answered candidly. She had always been apprehensive in cemeteries, but she had never reacted so strongly to the sight of an open grave before. Thinking about that must have been a cue for the whispers to start again.

Fighting it was pointless.

She should go home now.

She felt a chill as her eyes settled on the open grave. That must have been the "home" the whisper was telling her to go to. It felt like something was trying to draw her closer to it and that feeling was gnawing at her mind. She was trying to make sense of the whispers when she felt something heavy drop onto her right shoulder and she jumped.

"Lucia, you don't look so hot. Are you sure you're OK?" Will asked Lucia. The startled blonde turned to look at him and started to shake her head but decided not to. She simply turned back towards the path in front of them and waited for some of the adrenaline to wear off before she started talking again.

"I'm OK right now, Will." Lucia replied. She was feeling well enough to progress deeper into the cemetery for the time being, but she was not sure how long her resolve would last before it disappeared again. She would keep going for as long as she could because something was compelling her to keep moving.

"OK, Lucia. If you need to leave here let me know and I'll carry you out of here in my arms if I have to." Will said to her. Lucia hoped that things would not get so bad that Will had to physically carry her out of Silent Cemetery, but she did not know what was waiting for her deeper in the cemetery. All she knew was that she felt a strange compulsion to keep moving and that she was heading in the right direction.

"Thanks, Will. Now let's keep going." Lucia said to him. She hesitated for a moment before taking the first step forward with her right foot. Will followed to her right and the pair walked down the cemetery path in front of them and followed it towards the bend to the left waiting for them at the end of the path.

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-In the next section of cemetery, six minutes later-

Lucia and Will set foot inside the next section of cemetery and were surprised to find it totally devoid of zombies. They had expected to find another group waiting on them, but there was not a single walking corpse in sight. They did not hear any moaning nearby either. Will and Lucia looked at each other.

"This is weird, Lucia. There's no zombies here." Will said to her.

"Yeah. Normally you can't throw a rock in this place without hitting a zombie, but this area's free of them." Lucia commented. She too found the situation strange. While she was glad that she did not have to fight her way through a small army of the undead, it was strange to not see any at all. She wondered if they had not emerged from wherever they emerged from yet.

"Anyway, let's get going before any of them show up." Will suggested. Lucia nodded.

"Yeah. Let's get going." Lucia agreed. The two started walking down the long straight path ahead of them while looking left and right. They did not want to be surprised by any zombies who suddenly emerged on either side of the path. While the pair could fight their way out of the mess even if they were surrounded, being surrounded would make the fight a lot more harrowing than it had to be.

The pair walked in silence as they kept their eyes and ears open. They reached the halfway point of the path without incident and continued to remain vigilant, beginning to stop every five or so meters and look behind them to reduce the chances of being surprised by a late arrival to the previous fight. While stopping and starting was tedious, it beat being surprised by a zombie attacking from behind. Will had nothing to fear from zombie bites since he was an android, but Lucia was a human and one bite would eventually turn her into a walking corpse.

At the end of the path lay another open gate and beyond that gate lay several mausoleums flanking the path with doors that were ominously open. At the end of the path were two angel statues flanking an open gate that led to the next part of the cemetery. At least thirty zombies littered the area ahead, but there was no telling if any more were hidden in the open mausoleums. Will and Lucia paused in place to determine a plan of action.

"OK Lucia, here's what I'm thinking. You use that fancy spell of yours where you fire the beams of light and I'll handle the zombies your spell can't hit." Will proposed that Lucia lead off with her Seraph's Fury spell before he took care of the rest. Lucia had no problem with that arrangement.

"Certainly." Lucia replied laconically. She took the lead and walked into the next part of the cemetery with Will following close behind her.

-In the next section, ten minutes later-

Lucia took twelve steps and came to a stop, then channeled golden magic throughout her body. She saw the zombies shambling around stop and take notice of her, but it was too late for them to get anywhere near her. She leaped straight up into the air and froze in place at the peak of her jump, then flapped the six golden wings of light to fire off twenty-five beams of light. They homed in on twenty-five of her targets and hit them in the torso, disintegrating the zombies on contact.

Lucia landed on her feet and Will stepped to her right and aimed his arm cannon at the closest zombie still on its feet, which was a male zombie in a black tuxedo standing eleven meters away and walking towards them at a sluggish pace. It only took a few seconds before the arm cannon shot rang out and the zombie's head suddenly developed a fist-sized hole in the forehead. Will did not stop there... he quickly cleaned up the rest of the zombies on the path as Lucia watched. Once he was finished killing the rest of the zombies he turned to her and spoke.

"OK, this area should be clear now." Will informed her. Lucia looked ahead of them towards the open mausoleums and saw some zombies start to shamble through the open doors. Will sighed.

"It looks like I spoke too soon." Will commented sourly on the arrival of more zombies.

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"It doesn't matter, Will. I've got it under control." Lucia assured Will. The latter stayed where he was and watched as Lucia prepared another Seraph's Fury spell. She waited until some of the zombies were out in the open before casting it to make sure that the magic power invested in the spell did not go to waste and that she and Will were not swamped by a mass of walking corpses because she had cast her best crowd control spell too soon.

When the time was right Lucia cast the spell and leaped into the air, flapping the golden wings on her back to fire off twenty-five golden beams of light that homed in and hit twenty-five of the zombies shambling towards the pair. The zombies disintegrated on the spot, thinning out the horde to a level Will and Lucia could handle with just their weapons. Lucia drew Shining Light and Will prepared his arm cannon.

"Nice work, Lucia. You really cut them down to size." Will complimented the mage on her powerful magic.

"We'll celebrate when they're all dead. Again." Lucia reminded Will of the task at hand. Will raised his arm cannon and Lucia raised Shining Light, taking a two-handed shooting stance.

"It won't take long to deal with these guys." Will told her. Moments later Will began firing at the heads of the oncoming walking corpses and Lucia followed suit. The air was filled with the sound of gunfire as Lucia's pistol and Will's arm cannon began cutting down the undead mob shambling towards them.

-Ten minutes later-

The last zombie fell dead by Will's arm cannon and the two stood victorious. Lucia put away Shining Light and looked towards Will, who had changed his arm cannon back into his regular arm.

"That was easy." Will commented on the "fight" that had just concluded.

"Yeah. I'm glad for that." Lucia remarked in return. She was thankful that whoever had resurrected her had given her Holy magic because it had made her life a lot easier. Her Holy magic was strong enough to turn zombies to dust without having to make headshots, which were a lot harder to make than movies made them out to be. Lucia was lucky that she had become a decent shot with Shining Light and that it was a Holy handgun.

The pair looked down the path ahead of them and did not see any more zombies. They had eliminated all of the enemies in this area. Now they had to proceed down the path and get to the next section of cemetery to see if Lucia could find what had compelled her to come here.

"Let's get going, Will. And be careful as you walk. I think all of the zombies are dead, but one or two might have escaped killing shots and might grab for your legs." Lucia said to Will, warning him to be careful. He had nothing to fear from being grabbed and bitten, but the blonde still wanted him to be careful. She did not want him to suffer damage from a zombie pulling at the right place with just enough strength to damage Will. She was counting on him to save her if she got in trouble.

"I'll be careful." Will assured her. Lucia then began to walk forward, carefully maneuvering through the area that was littered with undead corpses so that she reduced the chances of having her leg grabbed and bitten. Lucia moved slowly and carefully, making sure to place her feet only on open ground and as far away from the heads of the fallen enemies as she could. After a tense minute or two of walking Lucia had cleared the patch of undead littering the ground and was standing on zombie-free ground.

In contrast to Lucia's careful movement Will began walking through the patch without a care in the world. He walked through them while looking at Lucia and did not break stride as he stepped on arms and heads. The gray-clad robot made it through without a scratch and only stopped once he reached Lucia's right side.

"Ready to keep moving?" Will asked Lucia.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Lucia replied. Together the pair began walking towards a gate flanked by angel statues with their arms raised and hands outstretched as if reaching out for the viewer. Lucia was not sure whether to take comfort in that or be concerned. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up once she passed by the statues and she began to approach the next area. She was not sure why she was feeling so strange, but whatever was making her feel that way had to be waiting in the next part of the cemetery.

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-Inside the next section of Silent Cemetery-

Lucia had passed through the gate first followed by Will. Now they were standing inside the portion of Silent Cemetery with the large angel statue with its arms raised to the sky. Around them was a large area dominated by small mausoleums, tombstones, and the large angel statue standing in the center. Something about this place was off and it was not just the absence of zombies.

"Hey, where's the undead welcoming committee?" Will asked Lucia, picking up on what she had detected.

"I don't know, Will. It's really strange, though. Normally they're everywhere you turn." Lucia replied warily. The hair on the back of her neck was still standing up and she was feeling really apprehensive. There were no open graves or anything to seriously creep her out, but the eerie feeling of peace that came with being in Silent Cemetery had been amplified to the point it was becoming creepy. Speaking of peace, the area was entirely silent.

No wind, no zombies moaning nearby or in the distance, nothing but a moonlit area in front of them. At least that was the case until Lucia spotted a faint image of something like a transparent cloak fluttering in front of the angel statue. Despite it moving about it was remaining stationary like it was attached to someone.

"Hey Lucia, am I seeing things or is that a person?" Will asked her, pointing towards the transparent cloak with his right hand. Lucia looked closely and spotted it too. She was starting to see a faint outline of a person take shape.

"Yeah, I see it. I don't like it at all." Lucia confirmed that she was seeing what he was seeing and stated her dislike of it.

"If we're about to fight a ghost, I can't help you there. My weapon won't work on it." Will reminded Lucia. Lucia did not say anything because she was too busy watching a human outline take shape. The blonde felt a tug on her left arm and looked back to face Will.

"You might not wanna stand too close to whatever that thing is, Lucia. I'd get back if I were you." The gray-clad robot suggested. Lucia turned back to face the object and was surprised when moments later a white-haired young woman appeared. Lucia jumped back in fright and Will put himself in front of the startled blonde.

When the Luminous Rose mage finally calmed down enough to focus again she peeked out from behind her protector and saw a young woman with rather long white hair wearing a white coat over a red shirt. She also wore a brown skirt and brown shoes and carried a pocketbook. The new arrival looked like she was ready to go on a shopping trip or a date.

"Who are you?" Will asked the white-haired young woman the question that was on Lucia's mind. The person faced Will and smiled brightly.

"I'm her guardian angel." The young woman replied, pointing at the blonde standing behind Will. He scoffed at the introduction.

"A white-haired young lady popping up out of nowhere in the middle of a cemetery claiming to be some sort of divine agent... I'm not buying that for a second. I think you're just a ghost who's up to no good." Will expressed his skepticism in his usual candid way. The "guardian angel" was not put off by his skepticism and continued to smile.

"While I can understand why you're suspicious of me and my motives, I'm not your enemy." The white-haired young woman asserted. Will crossed his arms over his chest.

"OK. If you're not our enemy, then what do you want with us?" Will inquired.

"There's something unusual going on here." The young woman told Will. Will scoffed again.

"In other news... water is wet." Will retorted sarcastically. Lucia had been silent up to this point, but now Lucia felt compelled to step in.

"Will, please. Let's hear what she has to say." Lucia urged Will to be a little more civil.

"I think we're being set up, but if you want to hear what this lady has to say, then don't let me stop you." Will reluctantly agreed to let the person speak without interruption.

"As I was saying, there's something strange going on here. Something I need your help taking care of." The young woman continued.

"You'll have to be a little more specific about what you mean by "strange" because we're in the middle of a place where dead people walk around." Lucia told the white-haired person in a tone that was a little more polite than Will's but one that indicated that she wanted the person to get to the point.

The Guardian Angel:

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"There's a necromancer around here who's trying to revive something that shouldn't be revived." The "guardian angel" finally told them, finally getting to the point. Will looked unimpressed while Lucia stood and waited for more information.

"If you're a divine agent, why don't you handle it?" Will bluntly asked the person. The white-haired young woman soon gave an answer to the inquiry.

"I can't." Came the answer. That was not what Will wanted to hear because his left hand clenched into a fist.

"Why? Because you're not allowed to directly intervene or something?" Will asked bluntly, his patience for whatever was going on having long since vanished.

"Something like that." The person answered evasively. Will was beside himself with frustration.

"You can't handle one lousy necromancer despite supposedly being an agent of a divine power, so you're trying to rope us into doing your work for you." Will gave his commentary on what he believed the situation to be. That commentary was laced with scorn for the white-haired young woman, who Will believed was a ghost trying to set them up for something unpleasant. Lucia remained silent and waited for the young woman to answer.

"There's a reason I can't do it myself." Came the answer, which was every bit as evasive as the last "answer" Will and Lucia had been given.

"You know what? I've had enough of this stupid little game. Since you're apparently allergic to giving us straight answers to our questions, I don't care any more. You can go be mysterious somewhere else." Will declared that he was finished dealing with the young woman. The young woman looked crushed by the gray-clad robot's declaration. It was up to Lucia to step in and try to salvage the situation.

"Where's this necromancer you want us to stop?" Lucia asked the person.

"They're somewhere in the other side of the cemetery." The young woman answered. Will groaned in frustration.

"How observant of you! We didn't encounter any men wearing funny robes on our way here, so I guess they have to be on the other side of the cemetery!" Will shot back.

"We'll take care of it." Lucia said. Will's jaw dropped a bit before he stomped to Lucia's side.

"You can't be serious, Lucia! This so-called guardian angel's a fake who's setting us up for something bad!" Will protested.

"Look, Will. if she's wrong the worst that happens is that we'll waste our time. If she's right we can't let the necromancer do whatever they want. If we don't try to stop them there's no telling what will happen." Lucia tried to get her companion to understand her reasoning. Will was obviously not buying what the blonde was saying but was listening to her anyway, if only out of politeness. At the end of her statement he held his left hand up in a "stop" gesture to indicate he was taking the floor.

"I know where this is going, Lucia. You're gonna do this with or without me. Even though I think this whole thing's a setup I'll go with you." Will told Lucia before stating that he would help her despite his reservations.

"And I'll go with you too." The young woman replied. Will looked like he was about to say something really sarcastic, but he made eye contact with Lucia and that was enough to dissuade him from making the remark... for now.

"Fine. Whatever." Will gave a terse response to that statement. He then turned to face Lucia.

"Ready to start looking for this necromancer?" Will asked Lucia.

"I'm ready when you are." The blonde mage replied. With that the robot and mage duo turned around and headed back towards the entrance to Silent Cemetery with their supposed guardian angel walking just behind them.

-Near the entrance to Silent Cemetery, twenty-five minutes later-

The return trip to the entrance had been much shorter than the trip to the section with the giant angel statue, but that was because Will and Lucia had already eliminated the zombies in their way. Without zombies to slow them down the trip was much easier and shorter. Now they were on the branching path... in front of them loomed the path that led to the left side of the cemetery and on the left was the path that led to the double doors that would take them out of here.

In front of them was a path full of zombies. Some were shambling in the far distance and others were standing around and staring at their surroundings with a thousand-yard stare. Lucia turned to face Will

"Well, those zombies aren't gonna take care of themselves." Will commented to Lucia about what needed to be done next and formed his right hand into the arm cannon.

"I'll get started shortly." Lucia stated. Her Seraph's Fury spell was going to get a serious workout tonight.

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Lucia faced the zombie-filled path ahead and counted their numbers. She estimated that there were about forty of them in the way, the largest undead force she had seen to date. That might have been a sign there was necromancer activity like the "guardian angel" claimed there was or it might have just been where the undead happened to congregate tonight. It did not matter in the end because either way they were going to be eliminated.

When she was ready to start the elimination Lucia prepared the Seraph's Fury spell while Will stood by with his arm cannon in case some of the undead noticed Lucia preparing the spell. Since the spell caused her to glow gold there was a chance that she might be noticed before the spell was ready, but she need not have worried. By the time she leaped into the air to cast it none of her targets had even moved from their positions along the path. Lucia froze in place at the height of her jump and flapped the six golden wings that appeared on her back, sending out twenty-five beams of light that homed in on twenty-five zombies within the spell's range.

The beams of light hit their targets and disintegrated them instantly, instantly taking out a large chunk of the horde that stood in the trio's way. The survivors were alerted to the fact that someone was attacking them and began to move towards the trio, but Will and Lucia were ready. Lucia held her right hand with the palm out and created a ball of golden light and when it was ready fired the Seeker Bolt at the closest zombie. True to its name the Seeker Bolt homed in on the target and hit, disintegrating it instantly.

With fourteen zombies on the way Will began firing on the targets while Lucia prepared another spell. This time she prepared and fired a Light Bolt spell with her right hand at the closest zombie, a young woman in a white wedding dress who was missing her right eye. The Light Bolt hit the zombie in the torso and disintegrated it on the spot, leaving only thirteen standing.

Will took down two zombies with headshots by the time the blonde mage drew Shining Light and joined her robot companion in dispatching their enemies. The sound of the arm cannon firing joined the CRACK of Shining Light and when it was all over all of the zombies lay dead on the path in front of them. Both Will and Lucia lowered their weapons and waited for any zombies who were late to finally shamble to the fight, but none appeared.

"Well, that was easy. Not that I'm complaining." Will said to Lucia.

"Nice work, you two!" The white-haired young woman complimented the pair on their zombie extermination skills. Will turned to face her.

"Thanks. Zombies aren't the toughest enemies, but they travel in big groups. That's about the only challenge they pose to someone like me. Or Lucia." Will replied in a calm voice. He must have resigned himself to dealing with the young woman because he did not make any sarcastic remarks towards her. Maybe it was Lucia's influence that was keeping him from being brusque to her any more than he already had been, but finding out could wait until later, preferably when they were far away from Silent Cemetery.

"Lucia's magic sure made short work of them. I can tell that it's Holy in nature, which is a good type of magic to have when going up against necromancers and their undead minions." The young woman added. Will looked towards her.

"I'm her guardian angel, so I notice that kind of thing." She quickly explained. Will looked like he wanted to say something sarcastic but thought better of it.

"Yeah. It's a good type of magic to have and I'm glad Lucia has it." Will seconded what had been said earlier. He then turned back to Lucia, who had been patiently waiting on her traveling partners to finish their conversation.

"All right, Lucia. Let's get going and find that necromancer." Will said to her.

"OK, I'm ready when you are." Lucia replied. Together the trio started down the path again and headed towards the left side of the cemetery.

-The next section of cemetery, twelve minutes later-

"Just look at them all." Will said, pointing his left index finger at the path ahead. It was a straight path lined with above-ground burial vaults and miniature mausoleums with the occasional Lacrima lantern hanging from a hook to provide orange-yellow lighting. Ahead of the trio lurked another large group of zombies.

"There's so many." Lucia commented. She estimated about fifty in this group, but she could not get an exact count. There were definitely a lot of them, though.

"That means the necromancer is in the area. They're using the zombies to slow us down and buy time for their search." Their companion informed them. Will and Lucia were going to have to eliminate another group of zombies to get closer to their destination. They had better get to it if they wanted to have a chance of stopping the necromancer before the latter could find what they were after.

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The trio was facing a large group of zombies, but Lucia knew how to make the large group a little easier to handle. She channeled golden magic into her body, leapt into the air, and cast her Seraph's Fury spell to fire off twenty-five beams of golden light at her targets. Since the zombies made no effort to dodge the beams twenty-five of them were hit and disintegrated instantly, leaving at least twenty-five more in the trio's path.

Lucia was not going to stop there. A few moments after her feet hit the ground she held her hands out in front of her and began channeling golden magic into her hands until a sphere the size of a basketball was formed. Once the golden sphere was ready Lucia cast her Seeker Burst spell, sending out a spray of ten golden seekers the size of baseballs that fanned out and homed in on ten of the zombies. Again they made no effort to dodge it and were disintegrated when each seeker hit its target. Now the horde was down to fifteen zombies and while they had detected their attacker and started to move towards her Lucia and Will were ready for them.

"Hey Lucia, do you have any more spells that can hit a lot of enemies at once? We're gonna need it because there's a lot of zombies heading for us!" Will asked Lucia while firing his arm cannon at the approaching zombies. Lucia watched as one of them went down with a shot right between the eyes. However, there was another large group of at least thirty zombies shambling down the path to join their fellows in advancing on Lucia, Will, and the guardian angel.

"Hang on, Will." Lucia replied. She channeled golden magic into her hands and then held them outwards before firing her Light Beam spell at six of them who were "leading" the pack. Since they were too fixated on Lucia to even try to dodge it six of them were hit and disintegrated. However, their fellows continued to shamble towards the trio without breaking stride. Will continued to fire on them with his arm cannon, taking down another one with a shot to the head that punched a quarter-sized hole in its forehead.

"That's great, but do you have any more crowd control spells?" Will asked. Lucia drew Shining Light with her right hand.

"I guess that means you don't have anything else for hitting many enemies at once." Will remarked dryly. Lucia ignored that remark in favor of raising her left hand and aiming the palm at the nearest zombie, then preparing and firing a Light Bolt spell that hit it in the chest and scored an instant disintegration. Once the Light Bolt had been cast she raised Shining Light and began to fire at the head of the nearest zombie. It took her three shots because she was a little stressed by the size of the oncoming horde, but the third shot hit her target in the forehead for an instant kill.

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way." Will remarked before the pair began to fire their respective weapons, putting priority on taking down the nearest zombies before focusing on those farther away. There was still a fair bit of space between them and the undead horde, so if they were quick the pair could stop the zombies long before any of them got close enough to be a threat.

-Eleven minutes later-

"Well, that's the last of them. In this group, anyway." Will remarked the moment the last zombie hit the ground with a hole in its forehead. The mage and robot pair had successfully stood their ground and stopped the zombies before they got within five meters of them. The closest one had been killed at the five-meter mark with a single shot from Shining Light to its forehead.

"Yeah, but there's no telling how many more we'll have to fight through to get to that necromancer. And the noise we made means they'll know someone's coming after them. We're gonna have to hurry if we want to stop them." Lucia told Will.

"I figured you'd say that. We'll get going then. I'm taking the lead." Will told her and sprinted ahead of her before she could stop him. Lucia sighed as she put Shining Light back in its holster for the time being and hurried after the gray-clad robot. Meanwhile the guardian angel brought up the rear and hurried after Lucia.

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, five minutes later-

Will and Lucia had moved as fast as they could go, stopping only to deal with zombies. There had not been very many of those on the approach to the next section of Silent Cemetery... in fact they had only encountered four zombies and they were spread out, enabling Will to deal with them all without Lucia having to do anything. However, their progress came to a halt when they entered the next section of Silent Cemetery, which was a wide space with multiple rows of tombstones on each side just like the entrance area. Thirty meters in front of them loomed another large group of zombies... Lucia counted at least thirty in this mob.

"Well, we were making good time until these guys showed up. It's time for another fight." Will commented on the zombies blocking their way.

"Don't worry, Will. We'll handle them." Lucia told her faithful companion. About that time one of the zombies took notice of the trio and moaned, signaling the others that prey was near. The zombies began to shamble towards them and Lucia took a quiet breath.

[Post Word Count: 944]
[Total Word Count: 7,208/11,000]

-Ten minutes later-

"Well, that's the last of them. For now." Will said to Lucia after yet another battle with the undead had been successfully concluded. The last of them had fallen by a shot to the forehead from Will's arm cannon Lucia took a quiet breath and looked at the path in front of them, which was littered with over thirty dead zombies. A cold wind blew and moved Will's yellow scarf, Lucia's hair, and the guardian angel's hair.

"I know you are tired, but you must press on!" The guardian angel urged the pair to. Will sighed and Lucia remained quiet.

"Well, you heard the lady. Let's get going." Will said to Lucia. The blonde would have liked to have a bit of time to catch her breath after several consecutive fights, but there was no time. She had to keep going.

"All right, Will. Let's keep going." Lucia said and stood to the side as Will led the way further into the cemetery. She was not sure how much further they had to go before they would find their quarry. She was also not sure if they would make it in time thanks to having to fight so many hordes of zombies.

-At the end of the left path, thirty-three minutes later-

After two more fights with large groups of zombies the trio was standing in the middle of a section of cemetery that was virtually identical to the one on the right side of the cemetery where Will and Lucia had met their travel partner. Will looked around the area while Lucia rubbed her hands on her arms for warmth. The wind was rather cold tonight and she had not expected it to blow as hard as it did, but she would live.

"Where's the necromancer we were after?" Will asked out loud. Lucia looked around the area and did not see any signs of them. What she did see was a large angel statue dominating the center of the area that looked down towards the viewer while extending a hand outward as if offering aid. She also saw a lot of tombstones arranged in neat rows and a few stone benches scattered around the area.

"I'm not sure. We'll have to take a look around." The guardian angel told Will. Will frowned and folded his arms over his chest. It was obvious that he wanted to make a cutting remark, but he looked at Lucia and took a deep breath.

"OK, we'll look around. If we're lucky they didn't go far." Will replied.

"Let's stay together. I don't like this at all." Lucia suggested. That feeling was not just because she did not like cemeteries. She and Will had already fought several hordes of zombies and she wanted him nearby in case more of them showed up.

Her suggestion was accepted without a word and together the trio began to search the area for the necromancer. Lucia was not sure if they were too late or not, but she was willing to try and locate them. They started on the left side of the area and moved at a slow pace so they did not miss anything. While walking among the tombstones Lucia could not help but to get the feeling that they were being watched by an invisible pair of eyes.

She looked around the area to try and get a glimpse of the unseen watcher but soon stopped in favor of looking out for more zombies. The feeling could just be her paranoia getting to her. The wind blew again and Lucia's mind was taken off of that uneasy feeling by having to rub her hands on her arms to try and stay warm.

"Are you seeing anything back there, Lucia?" Will asked the blonde.

"No, Will. Not yet." Lucia answered. She had not seen anything other than tombstones, stone benches, and the giant angel statue in the center of the area. There were no mausoleums here, which was good because that meant there were virtually no hiding places for anyone or anything to use.

"Just because you don't see anything doesn't mean that nothing's there." The guardian angel gave the pair some advice of questionable use. Lucia sort of understood what she was trying to say, but Will did not. Will frowned and looked at the third member of the party.

"OK." Will replied in a dry tone that was just short of being sarcastic. Lucia doubted that the guardian angel knew that Will was not human and not a mage. She thought that someone who was allegedly an agent of a divine entity would know that, but the blonde kept her mouth shut... at least on that subject, anyway. When she did speak it was about the sensation of being watched, which was growing more intense with each passing second.

"Do you get the feeling that we're being watched?" Lucia asked the other young woman.

"Yes. Something stranger is definitely going on here. We should have seen the necromancer by now." The other young woman responded. Lucia was not comforted by the fact that someone else had the same feeling. Instead she became more concerned by what might be watching them.

[Post Word Count: 870]
[Total Word Count: 8,078/11,000]

"I'm not understanding this. Unless they can fly or teleport we should have seen them already. How come we haven't seen them yet?" Lucia asked her companions before turning to them and awaiting their responses. Will shrugged his shoulders.

"Beats me." Will answered laconically.

"I hope that we're not too late. But I don't see anything to show that the necromancer was here. No graves where bodies were dug out, no holes that reanimated bodies could have come from, nothing." The guardian angel said. Will turned and looked at the young woman.

"I hope that we didn't waste our time on a wild goose chase." Will commented, making it clear that he was tired of looking for someone who might not even be in the area anymore. Lucia put her hands on her hips and looked around. She was not seeing anything that indicated that anyone was ever here. Like the other young woman said, the graves in the area were undisturbed and there were no mausoleums, so two obvious sources of "material" for projects were not tapped into.

"This is odd." Lucia commented on the situation. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up moments before she saw someone walk out from behind the right side of the angel statue almost as if they had appeared out of thin air and stop a short distance in front of her. The individual was wearing a hooded black robe that obscured their face and it was exactly like the one some personifications of Death wore.

"You've come looking for me, haven't you?" The individual asked Lucia in a dry and masculine voice. Lucia peered into the void where the person's face would be and shuddered. She did not see any facial features or an outline of a human face obscured by shadow. She wondered how that was possible, but she did not have much time to ponder that question.

"There they are!" The guardian angel shouted. Lucia heard an exasperated sigh escape Will's lips after that declaration, but she kept her attention fixed on the new arrival.

"If you go looking for trouble sooner or later you'll find it." The robed individual commented with an implied threat. Lucia recovered her composure and raised her right hand towards the person to be ready to cast a spell if she needed to.

"Who are you?" Lucia asked, her right hand trembling a little. She only got a chuckle in response. Will put himself between Lucia and the mystery person.

"I don't know if you're hard of hearing or not, but she asked you a question. I suggest you answer it." Will issued a command and turned his right hand into the arm cannon. The robed person turned their head towards him.

"Are you threatening me?" The person asked with barely concealed malice.

"Maybe." Will replied dryly. The only response to Will's retort was a pale hand raised towards the gray-clad robot. The hand began to glow pale green, but Will did not wait for what was going to happen and fired his arm cannon first. He fired three shots in rapid succession that passed right through the person's torso without doing anything.

"Your weapons are useless against me!" Came a boast before a giant skeletal hand appeared in front of Will and grabbed him around his body, pinning his arms to his side. Lucia sprinted around Will and put herself in a place to attack the mystery mage, then raised her right hand towards the individual and prepared a Light Bolt. She fired the spell and hit the target in the chest, eliciting an echoing groan before the faceless void quickly faced her.

"Foolish child, you will pay for that!" Came a threat. The skeletal hand holding Will moved up into the air and drew back as if winding up for a throw. Lucia saw what was about to happen and sprinted to the right, moving just as Will was hurled at her. He landed on the ground where Lucia had been standing moments earlier with a metallic CRASH and bounced twice before coming to a stop and lying on his stomach. Lucia turned her head towards her fallen companion.

"WILL!" Lucia shouted at him, hoping to get a response of some kind.

"Don't worry about him. You should worry about yourself!" The person warned Lucia. The blonde mage raised her hands again and the robed man matched the gesture. Lucia's hands glowed gold and the other mage's hands glowed green as each combatant prepared a spell to cast. There was palpable tension in the air as the two mages faced each other and waited to see who would make the first move.

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Lucia focused on her enemy and thought of what spell she wanted to use before she cast it. She would start off with another Light Bolt just to get a feel of what the robed individual could do. She knew that they could summon a giant skeletal hand to grab people, but other than that their magic was a total mystery to her. She was about to find out.

Holding out her right hand, Lucia channeled golden magic into the palm of her right hand and prepared a Divine Spark spell. When the spell was ready she fired it at the target and he raised a green bubble shield that easily stopped the Divine Spark before it reached him. Lucia blinked and took a step back as the shield disappeared and the man's hands glowed green. They held their hands out for a few moments and drew them back, leaving an afterimage that lingered in the air. They moved them in a circle before suddenly thrusting them outwards, firing a green skull with red eyes and chattering teeth that homed in on Lucia.

"Focus on defeating the necromancer!" The guardian angel commanded Lucia. The blonde mage did not have time to reply, so Lucia dropped to her stomach and the skull flew over her, hitting the ground a foot behind her. She quickly got to her feet and watched the man raise his hands into the air and hold them above his head for only a second before he swung them downwards. The ground beneath Lucia's feet began to glow green and she instinctively jumped backwards just in time to avoid a giant skeletal hand... had she been any later in jumping back she would have been caught by the same spell that had snagged Will.

"Impressive." The robed enemy commented on Lucia's dodging ability. Lucia was going to strike back with her Piercing Light spell because she suspected that the moment she prepared a spell the shield was going to go up. Lucia put the thumb, index, and middle fingers of her right hand together and the digits glowed gold as the spell was finishing. When it was ready Lucia fired a golden laser from the fingers and as predicted the green shield went up. She watched as the Piercing Light spell punched through and did damage to the person, who took a staggering step back before righting themselves and facing her.

"It seems that I underestimated you." Came the next comment before the individual began to glow an unnatural green. Lucia decided against waiting and instead attacked, raising her right hand and preparing a Light Bolt spell. Once it was ready she fired it at her target, but unlike the last time she used it the spell missed thanks to her opponent suddenly disappearing in a flash of green light. Lucia had not expected that trick and reacted accordingly.

Lucia began to look everywhere around her for the disappeared enemy. While she looked she took a moment to see if Will and the guardian angel were all right and to her relief they were... for now. The other young woman was on both knees and was holding Will in her left arm. She made eye contact with Lucia.

"I'm not sure if your friend's OK. He hasn't regained consciousness yet!" Came a report on Will's condition. Lucia did not have time to run over and check on Will because the robed individual was still out there and she had to defeat them. However, she could not defeat an enemy she could not see.

Lucia turned her head to face forward and did not see anything, so she looked from side to side. When she looked right she spotted a shadow on the ground, a sight that caused her to look up. When she did she caught sight of the robed individual hovering in the sky some distance to her right. Lucia looked up in time to see the necromancer raise their hands to the sky and begin chanting in a language she did not recognize. When the chant was complete their hands glowed green for a moment before a green beam of light emanated from the individual, hitting the ground below them and forming a green circle.

Lucia wondered what the point of the light show was but soon got her answer. She heard moaning as a group of twenty undead rose from the ground covered by the circle and began to move towards her as a single group. The perfect counter for the mass was Seraph's Fury. Lucia wasted no time in channeling golden magic throughout her body and when the spell was ready leaped up into the air. She froze at the height of her jump and flapped the six wings of golden energy on her back, firing twenty-one beams of golden light at her enemies; there were twenty for the zombies and one for the necromancer floating in the air.

The zombies were hit by the beams and were disintegrated, but the last beam missed the robed enemy, who simply disappeared in a flash of green light before the beam could hit. At least the zombie horde had been defeated, so the fight was still between her and the necromancer. Now she had to locate her enemy, preferably before they could catch her by surprise with a spell she did not see coming.

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Lucia was not sure where her enemy had went. One moment she was squaring off with a small force of zombies that had been summoned to slow her down and the next their summoner was gone. She had to find her target before they got the drop on her, but she did not have anything that could reveal invisible enemies. She also could not use spells with an area of effect because Will and the guardian angel were close by and they would get caught in it.

Lucia felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and she spun around to find that her opponent was literally within arm's reach. They reached out for the blonde with a pale white hand that glowed an unnatural green and she ducked under it, drawing Shining Light since she did not have time to prepare and cast a spell. She dropped to one knee and fired three shots into the enemy's torso at very close range, hitting with each shot. The robed enemy staggered back and clutched their torso with their left hand.

"Again I underestimated you." The mysterious entity complimented Lucia on her skills. It then floated into the air in a column of unnatural green light and paused, then a pair of green eyes glowed beneath the hood of the robe.

"I will not do so again." It warned Lucia. It raised both hands and held them out, aiming them at Lucia. Its hands glowed green and within seconds it fired a pale green beam of light at the blonde, who turned to the left and dove out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit. The ground where she had been standing glowed green at the point of impact for a few moments before fading back to its natural color, but she did not have long to retaliate.

Lucia got back to her feet and quickly holstered Shining Light before preparing an Angelic Arrow spell. When it was ready and she was sure of her aim she fired the golden arrow at the target's chest. The arrow hit just as the enemy was readying another spell, causing a pained yell and a dramatic spin for one full rotation before they recovered.

The enemy raised a glowing hand and the ground beneath Lucia began to glow a sickly green, which was her cue to get away before something bad happened. She jumped to the left again, avoiding a column of light that featured a skeletal hand reaching up from the ground in the middle. There was a good chance that it was a spell meant to immobilize her just long enough to be vulnerable to another attack. The robed figure groaned in frustration and raised both hands, then thrust them out to the sides. The ground beneath Lucia began to glow again and this time a lot of skeletal arms quickly emerged from the ground while she was in the center of them, their hands grabbing at the blonde and forcing her to dodge them to avoid getting caught.

Lucia dodged the first by quickly bolting forward with a stagger and another arm to her left reached out to grab her hair. The blonde quickly turned sideways and did an awkward duck that barely let her scoot by another pair of arms reaching for her hair. She was forced into a duck and had to walk in that awkward manner to avoid falling over... she moved forward for five slow steps and almost fell over when she felt a skeletal hand brush against her backside that caused her to yelp and nearly lose her balance.

Near the edge of the circle Lucia experienced a close call when a hand brushed against her skirt and reached for the bottom of it, but she moved quickly enough to avoid the grab by bolting forward with a quick hop that put her just out of range. The blonde sighed with relief and looked up, spotting her enemy still floating in midair. She could feel anger in the air as the robed individual floated backwards for a distance equivalent to four backwards steps before they glared down at her.

Lucia backed up a few steps to get a better view of her opponent, who was just floating in the air. She raised her right hand and fired a Light Bolt at the enemy, but the latter vanished from sight, leaving only a burst of green light to mark their disappearance. The blonde recalled the same trick being used against her earlier and did not relax. Instead she began to turn in circles and look all around her for the robed individual, who was bound to reappear at any given moment.

"You have won this time, child. But next time your life will end at my hands. I will drag you beneath the earth and show you the meaning of suffering." The voice promised her. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once, making it impossible for Lucia to pinpoint her enemy's location. Once the threat had been made there was a brief silence before the wind began to blow and move Lucia's hair about.

"Are they gone?" Lucia asked the guardian angel while continuing to look for the enemy.

"I can't detect them anywhere in the area. They're gone." The guardian angel answered. Lucia finally exhaled. She looked towards the young woman, who was gently pushing Will into a sitting position. The gray-glad robot began to stir and held his head in his right hand.

"It feels like someone rebooted my operating system by force. What did I miss?" Will asked the two young women while looking at the ground.

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"You missed the fight between Lucia and the necromancer." The guardian angel succinctly filled Will in on what he had missed while unconscious... or the robot version of unconscious.

"Did Lucia win?" Will asked while still holding his head and looking at the ground. He looked like he was in pain.

"Yes and no. She won the battle, but the necromancer's still at large. I have no idea where they'll go next." The other young woman answered. Will groaned as he began to move about.

"Well, Lucia's survival is all that matters right now. We'll catch up with that robed person later." Will remarked. He slowly sat up straight and looked at Lucia who was looking down at him.

"They disappeared on me before I could defeat them." Lucia told her companion. He looked at her for several seconds before speaking.

"I said it once and I'll say it again. Your survival is all that matters right now. I don't have Holy magic, so if you died I couldn't stop them. Our guardian angel friend can't interfere, so right now it's up to you." Will repeated that her survival was most important.

"I'm allowed to cast defensive spells to protect others and I can heal others, but I can't directly fight evil. My patron made me swear that oath before I sought you two out." The guardian angel clarified what she could and could not do. Will looked like he wanted to say something sarcastic about that prohibition but thought better of it, probably because he owed his life to the guardian angel.

"OK. It looks like we'll just have to take what help we can get." Will replied, letting a small but tangible measure of disappointment seep into his voice. Lucia faced the other young woman.

"Do you have a name we can call you by?" Lucia asked her.

"You can call me Gabrielle." Came the response.

"OK. Gabrielle it is." Lucia replied. Now she had a name to put to the face of the guardian angel. Will slowly stood up and once he was on his feet looked at Lucia.

"OK, Lucia. What do we do from here?" Will asked her what their next move was.

"Right now we can't do anything but wait, Will. I have no idea where the necromancer will reappear and I don't plan on wandering around hoping to find them." Lucia told him.

"I'll handle tracking them. You two should focus on being ready to respond when I call for you again." Gabrielle declared that she would take on the task of seeking out the necromancer. Will and Lucia looked at each other, then at her.

"OK, we'll let you handle it then. You've got access to resources and contacts we don't have." Will ceded the responsibility to her. Gabrielle smiled.

"You can say that I have friends in high places. Very high places." She replied. Will groaned at the bad attempt at comedy.

"Please don't quit your day job." Will requested. Gabrielle giggled a little.

"I'd better let my patron know what happened here before I get started on tracking the necromancer. You two stay safe out there." Gabrielle said to them. She then vanished in a burst of golden light, leaving Will and Lucia standing in the cemetery as the wind picked up. The two looked at each other for a few moments.

"Well, that's that. Let's go home." Will suggested.

"Yeah. I've had enough of this place for one night. Let's get going." Lucia agreed to her companion's suggestion. Will took the lead and together the pair began to retrace their steps out of this place. Now that the fighting was over Lucia was starting to get creeped out again and wanted to get away from Silent Cemetery as quickly as possible.

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[Total Word Count: 11,344/11,000]